Viscoelastic heating of insulated bovine intervertebral disc

Back pain is the leading cause of disability globally and the second most common cause of doctors’ visits. Despite extensive research efforts, the underlying mechanism of back pain has not been fully elucidated. The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a viscoelastic tissue that provides flexibility to the spinal column and acts as a shock absorber in the spine. When viscoelastic materials like the IVD are cyclically loaded, they dissipate energy as heat. Thus, diurnal, regular movements of the vertebral column that deform the IVD could increase disc temperature through viscoelastic heating. This temperature rise has the potential to influence cell function, drive cell death and induce nociception in innervating nociceptive neurons within the IVD. The present study was conducted to investigate the capacity of IVD to increase in temperature due to viscoelastic heating. Insulated caudal bovine IVD were subjected to physiological cyclic uniaxial compression over a range of frequencies (0.1‐15 Hz) and loading durations (1‐10 min) ex vivo, and the temperature rise in the tissue was recorded. According to our findings, the IVD can experience a temperature rise of up to 2.5°C under cyclic loading. Furthermore, under similar conditions, the inner nucleus pulposus exhibits more viscoelastic heating than the outer annulus fibrosis, likely due to its more viscous composition. The measured temperature rise of the disc has physiological relevance as degenerative IVD tissue has been shown to produce a sensitization of nociceptive neurons that spontaneously fire at 37°C, with a T50 response at 37.3°C and a maximum response at 38°C. Our results suggest that viscoelastic heating of IVD could interact with sensitized nociceptive neurons in the degenerative IVD to play a role in back pain.